Tourism sector re-opens as airlines take off

Ndakaziva Majaka

Tourism players in Zimbabwe opened their doors on Monday, with domestic flights scheduled to resume later this week.

International carriers will start servicing Zimbabwe on October 1.

Tourism, like most sectors across the globe, stopped operations five months ago as nations focused on managing the Covid–19 pandemic.

Zimbabwe has registered 7 526 cases of the disease and 224 deaths.

Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe president Winnie Muchanyuka told ZTN that players delayed resumption while complying with World Health Organisation guidelines.

Muchanyuka said it was, however, “still premature” to talk about strategies to recoup costs.

“Well, at this stage we cannot really talk about bookings and business because most of our members only became fully operational this year,” Muchanyuka said.

Budget airline Fastjet Zimbabwe confirmed resumptions of flight next Monday.

Flights between Harare and Victoria Falls will operate every Thursday and Sunday, starting on October 1, 2020.

“International flights between Zimbabwe and South Africa are planned to start as from 01 October 2020 subject to the lifting of the travel restrictions by the South African authorities,” said Fastjet in a statement.

“On resuming services, the airline will be operating its flights on a reduced frequency, and will be reviewing their programme in line with customer demand.”